In Floris Honey Oud from the splitmeet. The oud is not strong and the honey is bright and cheerful. I was expecting a heavier fragrance, but this is so well balance and beautiful. I am enjoying it greatly and see myself wearing it a lot this season.

You smell lovely. Agree about it being well-balanced. I didn’t care for the Montale Honey Oud, myself so was surprised by how much I liked this one. The weather seems slightly less depressing today. Slightly, lol. Hope your spirits are better.

good for you!!! we are all entitled to mental health days…equally as important as physical health…do something nice for yourself like brewing a cup of tea and reading a good book or taking a luxurious nap or hot bath

SOTD NV Rahele from the ever generous Petunia. Agree, it’s pretty.
I ordered a bday gift from an ebay seller who had a 100% ratung. It was a special edition vintage Old Spice: 2 bottles which came in a piggy bank. He likes kitsch and Old Spice. It arrived yesterday, the box saturated with Old Spice and the bank was broken to pieces and both bottles had the stoppers dislodged and were empty. She wrapped it in a thin layer of air cell wrap, most of the cells came deflated so lots of space for the item to rattle around and break. I sent her a message yesterday requesting a refund. Still wairing to hear back from her. Grrrr. So disappointed. Meanwhile, my living room smells like Old Spice. It kind of seems like the men’s version of Opium. I really like it!

Such a waste of perfume!! I’d rather pay an extra dollar for shipping costs for sellers to actually wrap things properly. (I’ve not had a perfume disaster but other fragile items that arrived broken because the seller cheaped out on packaging materials.)

Yeah, here, too. The bottles should have been taken out and wrapped separately since they didn’t seem that secure in the larger piggy bank which was rather thin hard plastic. Judging from her other responses to negative feedback, she seems defensive-writes in all caps. Oy. I’m hoping she acts reasonably here.

please report back! I am sure it is so cheap that if it is halfway decent I might be tempted..I have been watching Redolessence youtube videos and he gives great ideas for “smells like” that are MUCH MORE affordable than the niche counterparts…

hey that might be another good community project “SMELLS LIKE”… wear a cheaper “dup” which would also be highly informative for those of us on a tight budget

lillyjosays:

14 November 2017 at 1:32 pm

OK, I’m reporting back. I would not have known the current version was Old Spice, but my memory of it is decades old. That said, I like it. At first, I got menthol and soap(I tried it on the back of my hand) but after five minutes or so, I got the spice. To my nose it was cinnamon, and clove like. I actually really liked it, especially for the price!

What a pain! This is one of the reasons I am apprehensive about ebay…and not surprised about the Old Spice /Opium connection as Old Spice was originally marketed for women when it first came out.
I hope you get your refund!

This is my first bad experience. Well, it’ll be bad if she refuses to take responsibility. The last mishap was a decant that leaked despite adequate packaging. The seller reponded promptly and refunded me without an argument.

That’s so disappointing. I’m often shocked at how badly people pack things. My husband has a bottle of Old Spice in the medicine cabinet. I just tried a little…too sharp for me. Hope the refund isn’t an issue.

You shouldn’t worry too much, you’re covered under Ebay buyer protection anyway. As someone who sells often on Ebay, trust me, Ebay is slanted almost entirely in favor of the buyer. As soon as you start the official ‘request a refund’ process with the seller (not just emailing them), the money is practically back in your hands. (Yes, grumpy seller here who is currently dealing with a scumbag buyer who has demanded a refund AND demanded to keep the supposedly-defective perfume which was just fine when it left my hands… at least I was able to require them to return it [though I have to pay for the return])

Completely agree with pixel’s assessment. You have open and shut case there and if you do not hear back from the seller, just open the dispute with eBay.
Pixel, sorry to hear about bad buyer. I was selling something on eBay 2 weeks ago and was really freaked out when someone with 0% FB was bidding on my very expensive item. I ended up cancelling their bid, and man, they sent me a lot of harassing emails, lying through their teeth, leaving their phone number and demanding I call them. Was quite a twilight zone experience.

Yep, ditto this. I bought a bottle of Diptyque Essences Insensees 2014 which I happened to be home for when the mail carrier knocked on the door. I knew immediately there was a problem since the box was damp and reeked, and he told me his truck smelled great. The bottle was completely empty. The seller was an *ss about it, but I took pictures and got a complete refund.

Hey Twin! I wore Rahele today too. I had an appointment today and thought that it would work well for that.
I’m sorry that the Old Spice was broken in transit. That’s a shame. It reminds me of my father. I grew up smelling it on him and always liked it. I hope the dealer responds favorably. If not, you can file a claim to get your money refunded. The seller was careless In wrapping your items.
I dived into Macy’s after my appointment and smelled Dune this morning. It made me think of you!

Twinsies! And Rahele always make me think of you 😊 My husband associates Old Spice with his father and it’s one of the few fragrances he actually likes.
Funny, I hardly wore Dune at all this year. I wore it a lot last year. Still love it though. I’ll go give it a fond sniff tonight.

Maybe you’ll be more inclined to wear Dune once the temps drop a little more. It’s still early yet.
I also smelled No. 5 body oil. It was heavenly. The only thing that kept me from purchasing was that they mixed golden glitter into the oil. Micro tiny glitter but not my style. Anyway, it was gorgeous!

I love the body oil! Oakland Fresca gave me a small decant of it and I was bummed it was discontinued. I don’t think I’d want the glitter either.

Glannyssays:

14 November 2017 at 9:26 am

I continue my project of wearing samples I haven’t worn in a while. So, L’Artisan Mon Numero 10 before shower and Dioressence EDT (vintage – 1984) after shower. Mon Numero 10 – sample finished, and now I’m tempted to buy a decant. As for Dioressence, it’s one of those old-school scents I like but do not wear often. Today I sprayed it lavishly and it smells great!

Some time this morning to go through samples from the Nordstrom scent event. I went a little crazy since I will shower it all away soon. MMM Replica lazy Sunday morning (kind of White Linenish?); Cashmere Mist; Tiffany & Co.; Aerin Rose de Grasse; YSL Mon Paris; Prada La Femme; Valentino Donna. My arms and shoulders reek! Mostly smell like something I’ve smelled before, and nothing I want to devote an entire day to. Into the “I’m done with you” pile! After the shower I will try BV eau de Velours.

After several hours I’m going to agree with Elisa. The opening was nice and different – a little fruity – but hours in it feels very much like the original (I have a mini already). I used a couple of sprays and it’s quite persistent, so longevity isn’t a problem!

I liked the BV Velours. Maybe even more than the original. The slightly fruity rose note makes it rounder and a little warmer to me. I found the later stages to be the same as original. If I didn’t own the original already, I’d consider this one. Also curious to hear your impression. Reek on!

How do you find out about when scent events will be? I have a cc, I get emails from Nordstrom, but don’t think I have seen this advertised? I know when the anniversary sale, but that’s the only time I have etched to memory.

My better half is taking the morning off, I am going to Via Quadronno for a coffee, orwashers bakery and the post office. I am going to TRY very hard not to stop into Clydes and buy anymore of there half off merchandise. Seriously, when else can you buy guerlain make up at half off? Don’t answer that or else you will enable me. The last time I was in there they still had VdN and French Kiss (which I didn’t like), but I never smelled VdN and won’t blind buy.

Day #2 of Vanilla Week is Diptyque’s Eau Duelle, the scent that made me reconsider my vanilla hate. Really like the herbal notes alongside the vanilla, it’s not too sweet, and the dry down doesn’t smell like plain vanilla extract.

My suggestion for a community project, which I mentioned once on here but plan to use this week to thoroughly promote, is to wear a perfume that reminds you of a dream you had. Last night I dreamed about a trip to a lake and learning to parasail, so I am wearing Sel Marin.

Ha! That’s funny. Winder what that means?
I dreamt this past weekend that Prince Charles had taken over this food truck and they only sold tea. It was really disappointing since apparently it had been a really fun and colorful spot and it had become rather dour in his ownership.

I love that one and have been surprised that it’s rarely mentioned here. Perhaps it’s the name? It was part of my Reek Havoc project, and I set it aside to test again on its own with no competitors on my skin. My recollection of it is that it was very green which I love. Now I’m wondering what people think of as skin scents. Is it the sillage, or particular notes/accords?

I’m wearing a small bit of Youth Dew today. Looking over the previous Friday projects to see what hasn’t been done yet. Trying to come up with an idea for Friday but everything I’ve thought of has already been done.

I like this idea! We could expand it to include fragrances that remind us of a very specific place – for example, not smells like the ocean or the woods, but smells like my visit to the beach at Carmel-by-the-Sea. Etc.

Yesterday I tried out Tom Ford Vert de Fleur. Anyone know any cousins to this that won’t break the bank? It reminds me of 28 La Pausa, I think, with better lasting power and more of a kick. Though it’s been years since I’ve worn 28 La Pausa, so my memory is probably blurred…

Hi Eswift83!
I’ve sampled TF Vert de Fleur couple months ago in Nordies. In my opinion it is not similar to 28 La Pausa edt, which I love and wear often, however, VdF was very similar to another Chanel- Cristalle edt, with more a lot more heft of course

Wearing L’Artisan au Bord de l’Eau. Despite its name, this is not bad (definitely my favorite of the last three from L’Artisan). I pick up quite a bit of orange blossom, and sometimes I smell a tomato (probably the “herbs”).

I’m in Angel Muse today. I think I smell great, if I do say so myself. I’m sure it’s been done (my pathetic memory just can’t recall) but maybe do a project with flankers we like better than the original?

Additionally, I’ve gotten my guy on perfume a bit. He knows I’m quite obsessed, obviously, and I keep giving him samples I think he will like. He actually sniffed with me for a bit in Sephora this weekend before he got bored and left. He got two samples- Grey Vetiver (he loves Sycomore and wanted to try other vetiver) and TF Noir Anthracite. I’m just proud he likes to smell good.

I’m in Atelier Figuier Ardent today. It looks like my weekly project so far is to empty out travel sprays. Not terribly interesting, but I keep track of the fragrance and skin care samples and products I go through each calendar month.
It’s always satisfying to go through the empties. 😊

I clearly have too many samples; I rarely manage to drain anything (although to be honest when I find something FB-worthy I don’t always wait until after I have finished the sample. This leaves me with fodder for the freebie meets!). I do like the Atelier, you smell great!

I’m wearing Fiore di Portofino from Moresque. This would work for Elisa’s “Places You’ll Go” challenge. I really love this one because it seems so well blended- I don’t smell the notes, I smell the whole entity. And I get lots of compliments on it.

World Pickle Day? I can absolutely get behind that! I love anything pickled…
Today’s SOTD is Chanel’s 31 Rue Cambon. I so love the old edt version… *sigh* I would have gotten a big bottle but I have the monster Coromandel to get through, and that bottle alone will last a lifetime!

Hi Luna,
I am wearing the EdT. Every version of the EdP I’ve tried (so far), has not worked for me.
In general, for Chanel fragrances, the edt or extraits work best. EDPs are always ‘meh’, for whatever reason.

This morning it was only +1*C and I felt like wearing something big. So I lavishly sprayed Histoires de Parfums Rosam all over myself. This is the perfume with biggest volume that I have in my collection.

I’m still strolling in the woods today. I’ve left behind yesterday’s huge blackcurrant patch (Vagabond Prince Enchanted Forest) but I can still smell it in the distance. SOTD is Maison Martin Margiela Soul of the Forest. This is a really great balsam fir / blackcurrant scent, less likely to scare the villagers than Enchanted Forest.

After 24 hours and long shower, I finally could no longer smell Civet–a perfume I enjoy—but geeesh it is tenacious. I used the last of my sample and promptly ordered another from Zoologist.

Today the cold morning and blasting heat from our heater made me feel contrarian. So perfume is a very lightly applied spritz of A la Nuit in my effort to defy the forces of winter.

In other random news, I have a relative coming to the US next month from the UK and I am on that dangerous blind buy search for something for her to bring me that is difficult to get here (at least in CA). I ordered a bottle of Caldey Island Lavender (not blind), but am itching to buy more. Anyone tried the Union fragrances? Gothic Bluebell?

Absolutely. And if you’re in London anyway you might as well add in Paris…and the. If you’re in Paris it’s only a few hours to Provence and from there Italy is just a hop…all sensible options compared to blind buying.

Idea for the day: a perfume that you think would be better suited to a different format e.g. It would be better as a scented candle rather than a lerfume, or air freshner, fly spray, shampoo etc. this is because I was in the Body Shop yesterday and tried the pumpkin/vanilla perfume which I thought would work better as icecream. But I was hungry.

Have to wear a VC&A scent today as I’m heading over this evening to see their jewelry exhibit – the Noah’s Ark items. And to hear a gentleman talk about his life collecting jewelry. I love VC&A jewelry. It’s so beautifully artistic. And it’s free!

So, it’s Orchidée Vanille for me today.

My husband is ditching me. He has found a new friend who is a film studies professor and is visiting New York. They are ODing on films. Tonight is at Light Indistry in Greenpoint…hell be waving at you Elisa P.

It’s at Cedar Lake on W 26th. It came up in my FB feed, so I went ahead and looked at it. I think Robin put a photo up one day of the elephants from the collection. That interested me. Not sure how long the exhibit goes.

I’m still mad at my TDC Bois d’Iris because my decant of it showed up uninvited after I thought I had invited the VC&A version. Unfortunately I have no staff to accuse of the error, so I will blame inanimate objects.

Rose Jam for me today.
Just back from such a great CA trip. Loved, loved, loved the PCH drive, and my brother’s wedding was just amazing overlooking a winery. What beautiful country CA is. Only disappointment was In-N-Out burgers which I’ve been dying to try and compare to Shake Shack. Not even in the same ballpark, sorry to say.

I was just having this conversation yesterday as they just opened up a Shake Shack here in San Diego. Haven’t tried it yet, but I hope that they are better than In-N-Out, since it is twice the price I like In-N- Out, but it’s certainly not the best burger around. For the price though, it is great.

Today’s theme is My Power is Out and Has Been for 15 Hours So I’m Grabbing Whatever I Can…. which was Citizen Queen by Juliette Has a Gun. This one falls in the underrated category. And according to the power outage map my power was restored about an hour after I got to work. The worst part will be throwing away the entire contents of the refrigerator when I get home, including an uneaten crock pot meal that my boyfriend spent time preparing on Sunday. Then we get to go to the grocery to restock.

My husband would have still eaten that for dinner! He claims food doesn’t go bad as fast a we think it does. And I actually believe him on that one being the science guy.
59 Brrrr! Glad your day got better!

We lost power for a few days recently. I feel your pain. I agree with Elisa’s husband. We lose power at least a few times a year. As long as you don’t continually open the fridge, the food will keep for a while. Well, maybe not fish. 😷

Sorry to hear about that, what a drag. We bought a generator in case something like that happens. So far we haven’t had to use it – I am hoping that just owning it will be enough to ward off the evil eye.

It’s a nice perfume, which my skin dutifully destroys in short order. But I wore it without having time to read the notes, and looking them up to write them here has been a surprise. There was apple? tulip? I kind of got saffron and spicy sweetness – in fact it reminded me of another Duchafour inspired by the same city, “Escapade a Byzance”. They have very few notes in common.

This is the kind of thing that makes me think I am an imposter on these pages!

I try to ignore those, and also the name, the perfumer, and the reviews. Granted, all of the above contribute to my desire to sample something, but when I do so I’m usually going in blind. I only get interested in looking at the details again if something draws me in on a visceral level and I want to know more. I can appreciate many things once I understand them better, but I don’t necessarily want to approach perfume from an intellectual perspective.

I love this! I’ve been thinking of the same thing. I’m very lucky to have a perfume pal who is happy to receive samples and decants and bottles from me, so I don’t hold onto anything. I often wonder if people actually do ever explore their purgatory pile/Mount Sample/Sample Sea and make a decision and act on it. I personally am not comfortable with owning things I don’t use, but there’s always a pile of it in the limbo zone and that gets overlooked and relegated to the yeah, eventually territory. I now have a designated pile of try-it-again samples that I am working my way through and either adding to my decant wishlist or writing off.

I don’t have a lot of stuff in the limbo category for my samples, thankfully. Most of the time I can determine “Like” or “Don’t Like” fairly easily. I have learned not to test new scents if my nose is off… weird things can easily happen then.

I have a nominal “love” pile, a box full of “nope!” and the difficult category for me would be the “I dunno.” I’m just not comfortable with my own ambivalence, and I don’t want to own anything that doesn’t move me. I know that my inclination is to think I’ll eventually rotate back to the limbo zone, but the reality is that I won’t unless I make a concerted effort asap.

LOL! I totally understand the “box full of nope!” I am lucky to have some friends who will happily take most of my “Nopes” off of my hands.

pixelsays:

14 November 2017 at 8:17 pm

I realized that I already have too much perfume that I like, there’s no point in ‘working’ on something that doesn’t grab me. Helps put stuff in the give-away pile faster. (We’ll pretend that I don’t have a box full of ‘maybe’ samples, won’t we. Mmm hmm.)

I have gotten better about casting off the immediate “nope” samples into the freebiemeet box, unless the perfume is a classic that I feel deserves a second (or third) chance. Or I like the way it smells even though I don’t want to wear it. But I have a large collection of as-yet unsniffed mainstream samples from various Sephora orders over the years, and I really need to spray them once so I can cast them off. (Even though I know I probably won’t find anything special…)